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10 of the world's weirdest wars (and where to remember them)

Australia vs the emu

On this day (November 2) in 1932, Australia declared war on the emu following complaints from farmers. Major G.P.W. Meredith of the Royal Australian Artillery took a pair of soldiers armed with Lewis guns on a six-week campaign to rid the Campion district of Western Australia of the flightless bird in what became known as the Great Emu War. It was largely unsuccessful, prompting the media to poke fun at the operation, while Meredith bemoaned the hardiness of the birds. "If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world," he said. "They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks."